Plains Zebra is also known as the Burchell's Zebra or the Common Zebra, this is the most common type of zebra and has a large population.
Basic Facts
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Perissodactyla
Family: Equidae
Genus: Equus
Subgenus: Hippotigris
Species: E. Quagga
Habitat
The Plains zebra live in the eastern and southern parts of Africa, like in the southern Savanna and Masai Arid Zones. Rainy and Dry seasons occur in this area, the time from late October and early December is the short rainy season, while the long rain occurs from late March to Early May.
These zebra's live mostly in treeless grasslands or wetlands, they also live in elevations from sea level to approximately 4300m on Mt Kenya. Zebra's prefer to live in areas with a high rainfall level, they relay rainfall for food and water. Since they relay on rainfall to survive, they are commonly found in areas around 25km from a water source and places with a large source of vegetations.
During the seasons with a high rainfall level, these Plain zebra's lead a mass migration following the rain in order to gain a large amount of grass. The Plains zebra will migrate up to approximately 600 miles, travelling through varieties of habitats like short grasslands, tall grasslands and wetlands.
Location of the Plains Zebra
Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/Equus_burchellii.png
Adaptations
Behavioral Adaptation 1
One of the behavior adaptations of the Plains Zebra is its way of mating. The male defends the "group" of females and in return the females mates with the male that defended them. This is the preferred mating system for the Plains zebra since they must travel a long distance to obtain food. Since the male defended a group of females, the male is guaranteed matings. There is no specific breeding season for the Plains zebra, but the most numbers occur in the rainy season.
Behavioral Adaptation 2
An unusual behavior adaptation of the Plains Zebra is how well they mix in with other species like wildebeests. They treat each other like friends protecting and alerting each other of predators. But this usually happens if they both are in a herd or big group, there were incidents of a single wildebeest calf getting beaten and harassed by a herd of zebra's.
A picture of a Wildebeest
source: http://www.naturephoto-cz.eu/photos/mraz/blue-wildebeest-05a09082.jpg
Structural adaptations 1
One of the most easily spotted structure adaptation of the Plains Zebra is that they are striped in black and white just like other zebra species. An interesting thing is that although all Plains Zebra's are striped in black and white, none of them look exactly alike, they only will be similar.
The northern zebra's have more narrow stripes on the underparts of their body, while the southern zebra's have more different but less amounts of stripes. Southern zebra's also have faint brown stripes in between the black and white coloring, while the northern ones did not have any brown stripes.
Structural adaptations 2
Another structure adaptation of the Plains Zebra is its unique body shape, it has a medium thick sized body with short legs. The size of this species is similar both sexes, male and female. Adult Plains Zebra both has a height of approximately 1.4 meters and are approximately 2.3 meters long. Both adult male and female weighs around 220 to 330 kg, while the male are mostly around 10% heavier then the females.
Physiological adaptation
Plains Zebra and other species of zebra's has a very good digestive system and is excellent for surviving. These zebra's has a strong incisors and lips to help them eat soft,hard,tall,short grasses. Zebra's dissimilar to cows has a single stomach and uses hind-gut fermentation allowing them to digest and store a huge amount of food enough to last 1 whole day. The food passes through the gut quickly causing them to eat continuously, they eat food that has better quantity instead of quality
Fossil/Extinct Animal -Hagerman Horse(Equus Simplicidens)
Future Animal - Zeborse( Equus Zuacidens)
Modern Animal - Plains Zebra(Equus Quagga)
Plains Zebra is also known as the Burchell's Zebra or the Common Zebra, this is the most common type of zebra and has a large population.Basic Facts
Kingdom: AnimaliaPhylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Perissodactyla
Family: Equidae
Genus: Equus
Subgenus: Hippotigris
Species: E. Quagga
Habitat
The Plains zebra live in the eastern and southern parts of Africa, like in the southern Savanna and Masai Arid Zones. Rainy and Dry seasons occur in this area, the time from late October and early December is the short rainy season, while the long rain occurs from late March to Early May.These zebra's live mostly in treeless grasslands or wetlands, they also live in elevations from sea level to approximately 4300m on Mt Kenya. Zebra's prefer to live in areas with a high rainfall level, they relay rainfall for food and water. Since they relay on rainfall to survive, they are commonly found in areas around 25km from a water source and places with a large source of vegetations.
During the seasons with a high rainfall level, these Plain zebra's lead a mass migration following the rain in order to gain a large amount of grass. The Plains zebra will migrate up to approximately 600 miles, travelling through varieties of habitats like short grasslands, tall grasslands and wetlands.
Location of the Plains Zebra
Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/Equus_burchellii.png
Adaptations
Behavioral Adaptation 1
One of the behavior adaptations of the Plains Zebra is its way of mating. The male defends the "group" of females and in return the females mates with the male that defended them. This is the preferred mating system for the Plains zebra since they must travel a long distance to obtain food. Since the male defended a group of females, the male is guaranteed matings. There is no specific breeding season for the Plains zebra, but the most numbers occur in the rainy season.Behavioral Adaptation 2
An unusual behavior adaptation of the Plains Zebra is how well they mix in with other species like wildebeests. They treat each other like friends protecting and alerting each other of predators. But this usually happens if they both are in a herd or big group, there were incidents of a single wildebeest calf getting beaten and harassed by a herd of zebra's.A picture of a Wildebeest
source: http://www.naturephoto-cz.eu/photos/mraz/blue-wildebeest-05a09082.jpg
Structural adaptations 1
One of the most easily spotted structure adaptation of the Plains Zebra is that they are striped in black and white just like other zebra species. An interesting thing is that although all Plains Zebra's are striped in black and white, none of them look exactly alike, they only will be similar.The northern zebra's have more narrow stripes on the underparts of their body, while the southern zebra's have more different but less amounts of stripes. Southern zebra's also have faint brown stripes in between the black and white coloring, while the northern ones did not have any brown stripes.
Structural adaptations 2
Another structure adaptation of the Plains Zebra is its unique body shape, it has a medium thick sized body with short legs. The size of this species is similar both sexes, male and female. Adult Plains Zebra both has a height of approximately 1.4 meters and are approximately 2.3 meters long. Both adult male and female weighs around 220 to 330 kg, while the male are mostly around 10% heavier then the females.Physiological adaptation
Plains Zebra and other species of zebra's has a very good digestive system and is excellent for surviving. These zebra's has a strong incisors and lips to help them eat soft,hard,tall,short grasses. Zebra's dissimilar to cows has a single stomach and uses hind-gut fermentation allowing them to digest and store a huge amount of food enough to last 1 whole day. The food passes through the gut quickly causing them to eat continuously, they eat food that has better quantity instead of qualityBibliography
Wikipedia, Plains Zebra. Retrieved July 25th from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plains_zebra#ReproductionAfrican Wildlife Foundation, Zebra. Retrieved July 24th from http://www.awf.org/content/wildlife/detail/zebra